Where ALL News channels , Portals , News Papers and Magazines have failed ....Guess what BLOGGERS have shown their dominance !!

I have been going through all the news channels , news papers , portals sites like rediff , indiatimes , yahoo , msn etc over the last 3 days ..

..at time switching channels and watching news of the Mumbai floods and their grave impact on the lives of people..

The so called good channels like NDTV ,AAJ TAK , Star News , India TV....I have one word for them ...THEIR COVERAGE IS A BIG BULL SHIT !!!

None of them could actually show what was really happening in Mumbai . and I mean none . All of them had a set of images and videos which they kept rotating ...again and again..

Stupid interviews and even more stupid assessment of the situation..

If I had my way , the government should cancel the broadcasting licenses of most of the news so called 24 x 7 channels in India . They suck big time !! Not even one is Good . Yeah , NDTV ( my favorite till today ) included ....!!!

Infact as it turned out , the most comprehensive coverage of the "real" situation there has been summed up by my freind and blogger Kaushal and his freinds in Mumbai and their blogs and pics .

I am now taking the liberty to give Kaushal's summation of the situation there which he heard from his freinds in Mumbai..

Via Kronicles / Kaushal .........

Pooja's points (after I ask her for an update on the scene in Mumbai)...

-we lost a neighbor - he suffocated in his car while his wife n driver became unconcious
-cousin was stuck under a flyowver all nite
-friends day took 25 hours to reach bandra from ghatkopar
-the deaths in cars....almost 25 known cases
-water entered my friends bunglow right above the bed, furniture was floating
- i saw a dead body outside my friend's gate. man must have drowned
-police didnt do a thing for over aday
-electricity was gobe for over a day, still not restored in juhu
-candles that cost 1 buck were selling for 50 rupees
-no drinking water - ppl were selling in black
-linking road had over 10000 cars stranded all through out
-pitch dark - no place to move
-ppl who cud abandoned the cars and left. some died in the cars
-some lived n reached home a day later
-water snakes on the rds
-ppl i know have walked home ading thru water for 10 hrs
-there was chin deep water in juhu and andheri
-a bus was submerged in kalina
-over a 1000 buffaloes have died
-school kids were stranded in buses
-massive trees fallen, poles fallen, roads are broken
-the walls at carter road have holes - i think they must have broken deliberately
-coz the water from the high tide n rain had made the thing like a pool
-ppl were slipping in their houses in the dark cos they cusnt see the water
-pitch blackness for over a day
-i believe even in bandra where g7 is, they used navy boats to rescue ppl
-ppl began mobbing my friend's merc for a ride whey didnt offer, they sat on their bonnets n boots
-car locks and windows got jammed...thats how pl died
-just imagine this man we know, he drowned in his own bldg compound and his body lay there for over a day
-my neighbor cudnt even take his dad's body to delhi for the funeral coz of the flights
-cooper hosp in juhu....the icus are tsill without water
-there was a school kids and drivers body found outside utpal sanghvi...the famous school in juhu
-my masi's ceiling thats below the terrace leaked n she kept slipping in the dark
-her daughet was out with her college friend the entire nite. no ifo abt her. cells were dead, few mtnl lines wrkd
-landslides in andheri at saki naka - over a 100 have died
-lights flickering even now

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25 dead in Mumbai ....These rains are a natural calamity : CM

25 dead in Mumbai: CM:

In my last post , I questioned to myself why can't the administration plan for drainage of the rain water in advance...the answer seems to be have been given by the CM today in his interview to rediff.com ...excerpts below..

"Asked why his administration was not prepared to withstand Tuesday's torrential rain, Deshmukh said, 'In the last 24 hours we have recived 40 inches -- 944 millimetres of rain. You should count this fact also. Who could have thought of or planned for such heavy rain? Any kind of planning would have fallen short in view of yesterday's rainfall.'
'When you plan the pipelines for drainage of rain water,' he added, 'there is always a benchmark. No engineers could have planned to drain out this volume of water in less than 24 hours. All planning would have fallen short in such rain.'
'Please understand this is a natural calamity,' he said. 'Who would have expected such rain?'"

Heavy Rains cause floods in Mumbai ( financial capital of India )

Floods!
Originally uploaded by GreyArea.

This pic via Flickr via GreyArea , illustrates the scene in Bombay . Notice the motorbikes on the right side of the screen .They have turned into waterbikes !!

Can the Municipality have better drainage systems in the most advanced of India's metropolis ??

Many people have been stranded stayed back in their offices during the entire night. Many of them fellow bloggers !!

The man is back...However there is twist in the tale in this pic . The clicker , is getting clicked, by another clicker . This blogspot is by a guy who is forever active on Flickr !!! Whoooa..Nice rhythm...What say Mr. Manchanda ?

DUS reasons not to watch !!!! ( **)

Its a waste of time writing a review for this movie . However since I have spent some bucks and some time in going to the theatre to watch DUS . Here is my list of DUS ( ten ) reasons why not to watch this movie !!!

1. Sunil Shetty - Even the ramlila which plays in my locality has better actors . All he does is shout in the movie !! Also his colored streaked hair makes him look a "wannabe "
2. Riya Sen - " Mere bacho ko mat maro " " Mere bacho ko bacha lo " ...are the only 2 lines she has to say in the movie with conviction .....and guess what she makes herself sound Dharmendra !!
3. Esha Deol - Her look in the movie makes you laugh ( infact this was the best paisa vasool part of the movie ) . She looks like a "lady Dharmendra" !! . She needs to act ...and fast !! Also I couldn't figure why she boards the plane in the end with small B ??
4. Dialogues - " Aap jab mere ko beta bolte ho ..to bada aacha lagta hai " ( tears roll down ) . " Cigarette main nahin pita" ( tears roll down ) .....Yeaah these are the moments which are supposed to be the drama element in the movie................wtf ??
5. Gulshan Grover - He borrows his dress and look from Osama and acts like someone out from the menal hospital with a tabla playing hangover !! The most pathetic attempt ever in creating a villain .
6. Diya Mirza - Zayed Khan track - Guys if you are in so called loved in the movie ?? Why did 'nt you get married ? Or was it me too busy with the popcorn ?
7. The sangeet song - The 2 leading guys Zayed and AB are going on a TOP secret mission in the night and flying to Canada. They have just about managed to get time to dress up in white kurtas and red stoles and dance in a Ladies sangeet . So much for top secret services !!! ....wtf....
8. Shilpa Shetty - Has a stupid batman tatto just above her butts in the movie !! Guess what ...Bats can act better then her !!
9. AB - Esha track - wtf....wtf....wtf......wtf !! A suggestion to the director ....He should have put in a romantic number in the Swiss Alps..maybe that would have worked for these 2 .
10. What the hell is Venky ' s Rock - Whatever it is...they are not making money on this one for sure !!!

DO gud reasons in DUS :

• Music
• Pankaj Kapur

Had it not been for these 2 , I would have written a HAZZAR bahaney NOT to see DUS !!

Cheers !!!

this is the strand and the friday market with a sunset view... taken from the top of Aquarium Hotel - the only tall building on the Strand

gorgeous view...isnt it ???

this is the Townsville Mariner

this is the city center... the brown tall building is holiday inn...

this is the rock pool at the strand... it has ocean water coming in for people to swim safely... as this side of australia has the stingers (box-jelly fish) like the ones in finding nemo

another shot of the sunlight on the hill ....

From the plane..into the sunset .....

More views of the beach !!!

The Strand Beach ...Aerial view !!

Townsville , Queensland , Australia - through the lenses of Mohit Manchanda

All pics shown are Copyright (c) Mohit Manchanda

My Red face Flickr badge !!!

My new Flickr Badge !!!

I am back in my OLD look !! Short hair....this time its...very very short !!! My mom is happy !!!!

High on energy and ideas !!!

Rehearsals and discussions !!
Originally uploaded by mohitinhere.

Microsoft TechEd 2005 event managers doing a discussion session with the show MC and giving their ideas on the closing session .I got the privelege to see a preview of the closing session at pre show !!

Lights...Camera..Sound...Tech Ed !!!

Lights...Camera..Sound...Tech Ed !!!
Originally uploaded by mohitinhere.

I got to sit with the Microsoft Tech Ed 2005 event management team and saw some of the rehersals for their closing sessions of the Delhi show at Amity Business school Noida. The preparations were good and the energy of the team was commendable- at 11PM in the night after a 12 hour exhausting and humdid day of coordinating the event . Also they have held this at 4 previous cities in India and this was the last leg of their trip !! Guess these guys are on high dose of RED BULL !!